Concealed-carry gun permits up sharply in recent years

To this day, some of Blair Campbell's most painfully prominent memories of that terrifying encounter are of her reaction.

"I froze," she said. "I just froze."

Feeling that paralyzing fear changed her.

"I decided I'm not going to be that girl again," Campbell said.

Over the years she enrolled in classes for self-defense and boxing, but recently she decided to obtain a state license to carry a concealed handgun. Campbell said she signed up for a class in February.

In doing so, Campbell will join a rapidly increasing number of Doña Ana County residents with a concealed-carry permit.

Coralie Carrier, an instructor with Southwestern Academy of Firearms Education, informs her students recently about the various reactions and instincts one may encounter while in a situation where firearms are involved during a concealed-carry course. (Shari V. Hill/Sun-News)

According to a review of the latest data, provided to the Sun-News by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety data, there are 2,180 Doña Ana County residents with active concealed-carry permits. That number has nearly doubled since 2009 and more than quintupled since 2007.

New Mexico legislated in 2003 to join most other states and issue concealed-carry permits. The state approved its first applications in 2004.

New Mexico is an Open Carry State, meaning, with some exceptions, it's legal to carry a loaded weapon in plain sight. According to state law, a permit is not required to carry a concealed weapon in a vehicle.

Form of insurance

In some ways, Campbell is a model for those seeking and holding concealed-carry permits. Course instructors — there are 26 that serve Las Cruces, according to DPS numbers — said that most people interested in concealed-carry permits want them for self-defense.

Issac Vigil is a veteran who has worked in a variety of fields and headed toward another. He's finishing a degree that he hopes will help him open a gourmet taco truck. Vigil, 39, is a self-described "gun nut" who has worked with law enforcement as a court security guard, selling firearms and in real estate.

LAS CRUCES - Coralie Carrier, an instructor with Southwestern Academy of Firearms Education, left, watches the gun-handling technique used by April Cano-Medina recently during a concealed-carry class at the American Legion Joe Quesenberry Post 10. Cano-Medina said she is taking the course for numerous reasons, but first and foremost to protect her and her son. To give me some piece of mind, she said. (Shari V. Hill/Sun-News)

"A lot of people buy guns and get concealed-carry (permits) as a form of insurance," he said.

By Vigil's estimation, most people interested in carrying a concealed weapon know the statistics. They know the rate of violent crime has been decreasing for several years both nationally and locally, according to the FBI and Las Cruces Police Department.

The latest LCPD statistics show violent crimes —as the FBI defines them: murder, some types of manslaughter, rape and aggravated battery — have trended downward since 2008, despite a slight uptick in 2011.

Still, for individual and collective reasons, people want to carry concealed handguns.

Campbell and Vigil have their personal experiences. Aside from the attack, Campbell travels throughout the state, often alone, for her work. Vigil said awareness of the possibility of violence could be raised locally by news of prevalent murders in Mexico and the weakened economy.

Instructors noted that their students are often middle aged or older, therefore more aware of their frailty.

Even if data show that such instances are rare and declining, "a violent attack can happen anywhere at any time," as longtime firearms instructor Thomas Townsend said.

As a paramedic, Townsend spend decades in crime-ridden areas of Detroit. He also managed hospital ambulances when the 1990 bowling alley massacre rocked this community.

He said the sudden and quick nature of some crimes often render the best law enforcement agents ineffective — they simply can't respond in time to stop some crimes, as, he said, one licensed person with a gun could.

Coralie Carrier has enjoyed guns as long as she can remember. For the past quarter century she has educated hundreds of people, from Girl Scouts to Senior Olympians, about how to use firearms, ranging from BB guns to high-powered rifles. It's her passion.

She teaches concealed-carry courses and said the rise in attendance at her classes and those like them isn't reflective of fear.

Coralie added it's not that overly anxious people are expecting to be attacked.

"They just want to be prepared," she said.

15-hour course

What goes into the preparation is extensive, instructors said.

State law requires, among other elements, that applicants pass a 15-hour course, including classroom and field components.

Prominent local instructors said their curricula cover the safe operation of guns, situational awareness, a review of laws and morality of when to use the hidden weapon in self-defense.

Jaime Chavez, the former chief New Mexico State University Police, taught firearms classes for officers and said the content of the courses is similar.

A professor of military sciences at NMSU, Lt. Col. Andrew Taylor, told the Sun-News last year that he learned more in Chavez's class than in 18 years of active duty.

Critically important, instructors said, is the mental component.

That means, they said, emphasizing what Coralie calls the "Adidas principal" —that it's better to run from an attacker than confront one. Equally important, they added, is discerning a frightening situation from one that legally and morally could compel deadly force.

"We shoot to stop and shoot to survive," Carrier said.

Instructors want licensees to have a plan of how they will respond when attacked. In contemplating those adrenaline-packed moments, Townsend poses a question.

"Have you accepted the moral responsibility that will be required for you to take a life?"

Killing, even in justified self-defense, is not the desired end, instructors said. It is, however, a possibility because they teach that once a person has decided to shoot, they should fire till the threat has stopped.

Often the threat of being shot will stop a criminal, instructors said.

In an email to the Sun-News, instructor Dusty Sensiba wrote: "One great thing is that in over 90 percent of criminal attacks against gun owners, the criminal withdraws the attack without anybody firing shots."

Statistics disputed

That and other commonly cited statistics are disputed.

Economist John Lott provided many similar numbers in his book "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws."

Lott's conclusions that right-to-carry laws lowered violent crime have been criticized by some as being simplistic, among other problems. Other researchers support them. Overall, the picture of the link between concealed-weapon laws and less crime is murky, according to the Washington Post.

Even if it's uncertain whether more lax concealed-carry laws make society safer, studies suggest such legislation hasn't increased crime, as some feared it would.

Other worries are unfounded too, instructors said.

As a shall-issue state, New Mexico will grant a concealed-carry permit to anybody that meets all legal requirements. It sounds relatively easy. Last year, the state rejected none of the county's 679 applicants, which may concern some.

But an application packet consists of eight components, including:

- Government-issued identification

- Training certificate

- Signed fingerprint cards

- Release forms to allow the state to review health and criminal history

- $100 (which can't be paid in cash)

Instructors said that process actively or passively deters potentially dangerous people from obtaining a concealed-carry permit. The age of most applicants makes them more mature, instructors said.

Chavez, the former NMSU police chief, said he has never had a student in a concealed-carry class the he considered suspicious.

"It's a big investment," he said. "A big commitment."

Mixed results

The experience of Vigil, the former gun salesman and security guard, echoes that of Chavez.

"In classes that I was in, not one (student) ever struck me as being an outlier socially or mentally," he said.

That doesn't mean the experience wasn't free of nervous moments.

Once, he said, a young woman nearly passed out, overcome by anxiety because she had never even held a loaded gun before the class. By the end of the day her "confidence skyrocketed," Vigil said.

Not everybody improves.

Vigil said that some people in concealed-carry classes made him "fearful" because of their sloppiness. He did not feel confident about their techniques or gun etiquette, even after they successfully completed the course.

In Vigil's experience, that problem is not just limited to the general public. From 2002-2005, when he was a court security guard, Vigil said he had to qualify at the shooting range twice per year, along with some Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies.

"Some that carry a gun for a living, they're not what I'd call shooters," he said.

As a clerk at a gun store, Vigil said one customer, who was an experienced with firearms, accidentally shot through a display of products while trying out holsters.

Said Vigil: "There's always a risk with firearms."

James Staley may be reached at 575-541-5476. Follow him on Twitter @auguststaley

By the numbers

A look at concealed-carry permits in Doña Ana County and the state over the years.

Doña Ana County

2007: 455

2009: 1,120

2012: 2,180

New Mexico

2007: 7,000

2009: 16,708

2012: 25,109

— Source: New Mexico Department of Public Safety

Looking for a concealed-carry permit?

According to DPS, there are 26 instructors in the Las Cruces area licensed to teach concealed-carry courses. Four of them have websites.